Microsoft Launches Zune HD

Today, Microsoft's next generation digital media platform goes live, with the release of the Zune HD portable media player and the Zune 4.0 software and services. More strategically, this release also marks a very important change in the way that Microsoft markets and brands Zune. While it was positioned as a direct iPod rival originally, the Zune hasn't performed well in that capacity. So going forward, it will become Microsoft's overreaching entertainment services brand, with the portable device just being a part of that brand, and not the focus.

For a product that's being deemphasized, the Zune HD is surprisingly competitive. It features a small and light form factor that somehow manages to make the iPod touch look bulky by comparison, and a gorgeous, multi-touch OLED screen that is vastly superior to any Apple product's screen. Microsoft further enhanced the Zune HD with HD video playback (via a separately sold dock), HD radio, and an intuitive new user interface. There's even an iPhone-like web browser and applications store, though, unlike with Apple, all the apps are free.

The Zune HD is available in 16 GB ($220) and 32 GB ($290) variants, in both black and platinum. If you order online from Zune Originals, you can choose from three other colors and various other customizations as well.

On the PC side, the Zune 4.0 PC software is still free and is improved since the previous generation with a Quickplay UI that lets you bypass your entire media collection and access the content you enjoy most frequently, a new mini-player mode, various Windows 7 integration bits, and other changes. On the Zune Marketplace online store, Microsoft now offers TV shows and movies for rental and purchase, and you can enjoy them on your PC, your Zune, and, in just a few months, on your Xbox 360 as well.

Whether any of these improvements helps Microsoft make inroads on the iTunes ecosystem is unclear, but the software giant appears unfazed by the competition. Going forward, the company says to expect to see the Zune brand pop up all over Microsoft's products, starting with a video interface on the Xbox 360 in November. But I wouldn't be surprised to see Zune in Windows, and in Windows Mobile, among other places. My review and other Zune HD/Zune 4.0 content begins today on the SuperSite for Windows.

Discuss this Article 22

In case you didn't catch it, when Paul mentioned in his article above that "unlike with Apple, all the apps are free", alarm bells should have been going off in your head. You should have been saying to yourself "FREE? How could all apps be free?! Don't 3rd party developers want to be paid for their work?"
Then comes the realization:
"Oh......"

I'm not sure if the negative feelings I have for Apple are because of the corporate culture (price gouging, misleading customers, outright lies about competitor products) or the App shills and trolls who seem to appear everywhere when I’m looking for news about Windows.
I don’t think I'm a fan of Microsoft as much as Apple and their Zombie followers turn me off. Why must the igroupies always comment about something they are genetically predisposed to hate? It makes the vitriol you spit out from your rotting undead mouths sound that much more ridiculous. You can’t look at something objectively and it’s truly sad. You sound like the “Birthers”.

"So, I guess the "closed" platform isn't so closed after all...."
Can I install an application onto it without first going through Apple's vetting process or without making it public?
Doesn't matter how many apps are there, it's still a closed environment.

I'm not sure if the negative feelings I have for Apple are because of the corporate culture (price gouging, misleading customers, outright lies about competitor products) or the Apple shills and trolls who seem to appear everywhere when I’m looking for news about Windows.
I don’t think I'm a fan of Microsoft as much as Apple and their Zombie followers turn me off. Why must the igroupies always comment about something they are genetically predisposed to hate? It makes the vitriol you spit out from your rotting undead mouths sound that much more ridiculous. You can’t look at something objectively and it’s truly sad. You sound like the “Birthers”.

Paul, you've mentioned in several places that you wouldn't be surprised to see Zune beginning to appear in Windows, and I'm curious as to what you mean by that. Isn't that exactly what the Zune Marketplace is and has been? Any chance you can clarify what you mean by your statement? With Windows apps tending to the model of Windows Live Essentials, I have a hard time imagining Media Player getting replaced by something like Zune, as a bundled app.
One place I'd love to see it appear in Windows however, is Media Center. Though Media Center can easily play any of my Zune Pass content out of the box, I'd love to be able to download songs, stream songs and playlists and manage subscription content using the 10-foot interface of WMC instead of having to pull out the ol' keyboard and mouse. And I don't have/like Xbox, so that doesn't help me out, either :(

@Guruguru:
Microsoft list this one ages ago. They tried the supposedly 'open' route with 'plays for sure' in a bid to topple apple and when that failed miserably they abandoned their 'partners' and went the 'closed proprietary' route a la Apple with the Zune attempt. Unfortunately this isn't working either. It must be so embarrassing for them. Why else would the Zune marketing guy leave the week before the Zune HD launch?

From Gruber, who translates the Microsoft/Paul-speak for us:
Translation From PR-Speak to English of Zune Marketing Manager Brian Seitz’s Response to the Question of Whether the Zune Will ‘Open Up for Third-Party App Developers’ ?
Zune marketing manager Brian Seitz:
It’s hard to say right now. If you look around the company at other places where things like this are important, Windows Mobile rises to the top. They have devices which are always connected, which make applications like maps really cool and important.
On a sometimes-connected device, what people are using them for are games. So what we didn’t want to do was build two parallel app store experiences that didn’t work together.
Right now our product roadmaps didn’t line up perfectly for us to snap to what they’re doing or vice versa. That being said, we know people want things like this on their devices so we’re going to build them ourselves, they’re going to be super high-quality, and they’re going to be free.
Down the road if there’s a way we can work with Windows Mobile or another group inside the company that’s building an app store and take advantage of that, that’s something we’ll look into.
Translation:
No, because our mobile strategy is a convoluted mess.

@ jersey72:
Surely it's a 'protected environment' rather than 'closed'. Imagine an environment where every 'script kiddie' could post what they wanted. You'd have the same unsecure bug-riddled mess Windows is now.

jersey72:
Yes, I've tried it, and it sucks. Absolutely nobody cares about Zune except for paid Microsoft shill Paul Thurrott. This will be yet another line of Zune products nobody will remember a few weeks later.
Microsoft is a failure as a company and continues its downward spiral into complete irrelevance as Apple and Google lead the tech industry for this century.

with the zune store coming up all they need to do is open the device to anybody and then it's windows vs mac all over again. and we know who won that in the end.
apple makes hardware and a hardware maker will remain. their closed platforms get an early head start but in the end come crashing down giving way to more open models.

microsoft shows apple how it is done:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/16/microsoft-releases-xna-update-for-zune-hd-developers-multitouch/
once developers can target the device w/o ridiculous apple rules, it will be a matter of time before apple with it's 200K apps will look silly vs open zune 200 million apps.
power to the people!

@infiniteloop:
"Surely it's a 'protected environment' rather than 'closed'. Imagine an environment where every 'script kiddie' could post what they wanted. You'd have the same unsecure bug-riddled mess Windows is now."
Ignoring the nonsensical Windows claim (but way to bring OS into this), if your statement had any level of validity then Apple would only prohibit applications from being installed onto the iPhone if it was a security risk. As Apple has shown time and time again, this is not why it's a closed environment. It's a closed environment simply because Apple wants it that way.

"There's even an iPhone-like web browser and applications store, though, unlike with Apple, all the apps are free."
Yes, all twelve of them.
I'm sure that the number of "free" apps available for the iPhone/iPod touch FAR outnumber the amount of apps available for the Zune. If Paul were intellectually honest, he'd point this out.